September 24, 2020
All pujas this year have to be organised keeping the rules of the COVID-19 pandemic in mind: Mamata Banerjee
Like every year, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today met organising committee members of Durga Pujas in and around Kolkata at Netaji Indoor Stadium. She listened to the issues and suggestions they had and then presented guidelines on the proper organising of the festivities.
Due to the extraordinary situation arising this year out of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain additional measures would be taken. A few government initiatives were also announced by the chief minister.
Highlights of her speech:
Pandals have to be open-air spaces. All sides of the mandap need to be open. If the sides cannot be kept open, the roof has to be done away with so that fresh air can circulate.
All the people inside a pandal, managing it, have to wear masks. The organiser also needs to ensure that all visitors are wearing them. Even if not wearing a mask, the mouth and nose have to be kept covered by a cloth. The Puja organisers and the police have to together ensure masks are available at pandals so that anyone not wearing a mask can be handed one.
Visitors have to be given sanitisers to rub on their palms, and this needs to be done much before they enter a pandal. To ensure there is no crowding inside a pandal, there has to be separate entrance and exit ways. To ensure there is no crowding outside, barricades have to be positioned and places marked for people to stand in.
To ensure everyone follows the rules, there needs to be more than the usual number of volunteers, and masks, sanitisers and face shields need to be provided for all of them.
I would request everyone to avoid crowding during anjali, prasad distribution and sindoor khela. People have to be divided up into small groups for administering anjali. The same rule should be followed for sindoor khela. It would be better if the people carry flowers and belpata from their homes. Housing society pujas too have to follow these rules.
Only a minimal number of people can be taken along for the immersion ceremony. All the immersions of a particular area cannot be held on the same day. The immersion ghats have to be sanitised properly.
The idols can be viewed during the night from the day of Tritiya to Ekadashi.
Inauguration ceremonies at pandals have to be curtailed. No cultural programmes can be organised during the Puja. Not more than two cars carrying judges for the various puja competitions would be allowed at the pandal premises. It’s preferable that the judging is done virtually. The Biswa Bangla prize distribution ceremony would also be held in virtual mode. The judges would be visiting the pandals from 10 am to 3 pm.
I know some people would play dirty politics on the organising of pujas. If I say, there would be no pujas, they would accuse me and if I ask people to follow a few rules, they would start a ruckus. The reason is that they do not have any responsibility; all the responsibility lies with the government. I can never ask people to stop Durga Puja. During Id too, though nobody was allowed to leave their homes to go to mosques, they did pray, at their homes.
Announcements for puja organisers:
The government would give Rs 50,000 to all puja committees.
The pujas would not have to pay any tax to their civic body or panchayat, nor do they have to pay any fees for deployment of fire brigades. They just need to pay 50 per cent of the electricity charge.
Announcements for street vendors:
Hawkers would be given Rs 2,000 each as a pre-Puja gift. The names of 85,000 such vendors have already been submitted to the State government.
Other announcements:
The salary of ASHA would get incremented by Rs 1,000 per month from October 1, as a result of which their salary would become Rs 5,500.
The salary of civic volunteers too would be increased by Rs 1,000 per month from October 1, which means their new salary would be Rs 9,000.
For anganwadi workers, the State government would start a gratuity scheme—all such workers would get a one-time payment of Rs 3 lakh on retiring.
